For the Jewish World this has been a tough week. The terror attack in a Jerusalem Synagogue shook Israel and the Jewish World to the core, and the terrible images of the attack will be a part of our memory for a long time. The focus has been on the five victims of the attack, four of them inside the synagogue and the brave Druze officer who died while killing one of the terrorists, yet a number of the victims remain in very critical condition and in need of our prayers. The 26 young orphans who said Kaddish together, are joined by a similar number who have been left with father’s who are fighting for their lives in the intensive care unit.
On Thursday, the four wives of the four murdered Rabbis issued a powerful letter which didn&rsq… Read More »
Mainstream America is locked in an ongoing debate about this question and has yet to decide still if it begins at birth or even earlier. The traditional Jewish answer is that it begins when the kids go to college or get their first job. Yet this week’s Torah portion takes it to a whole new level.
Last week in Paris, France, Rabbi Shmuel Azimov, the director of Chabad of France for over 40 years, passed away. I was saddened when I heard the news, but when I found out that he was just 69 years old I was in shock. As a young child in England I already remember hearing about the legendary Rabbi Azimov, and as I grew older and met many French friends it became more clear why this man was such a special leader, he was loved by thousands and had inspired tens of thousands. Yet after all these years, I was convinced that a man with so many accomplishments and having touched so many people, must be in his late eighties or more.
This morning as I drove back from Boston, I heard a BBC report from Turkey in which a young thirteen year old Syrian boy discusses his urge to join ISIS and fight the West and even die for his cause. The reporter asked him about the possibility that he might be killed in this fight and the boy responded that he would be overjoyed if that were the case. At one point the reporter asked the boy's mother about her feelings should such a thing happen and how she would react and she too responded that should her son become a martyr, she would be overjoyed.